BOULLEMIER

TONY

The Lost Prince - A Mystery of History

By Tony Boullemier, Sep 8 2017 02:00AM

A RUINED medieval church and a rough stone tomb stand side by side in a sun-dappled glade amid the Kentish countryside.

I have long wanted to visit this place. And I am not the first. A single white rose lies atop the moss-covered vault at Eastwell churchyard, near Ashford.

For this is the reputed burial place of a Yorkist prince.

He is said to be Richard Plantagenet, the younger of the Princes in the Tower and you can read in detail how he got there by scrolling down to my earlier blog ‘The White Princess and the Lost Prince’.

Legend has it that King Richard lll took him out of The Tower after his brother, young Edward V, died of natural causes.

He was brought up in a safe house. But after King Richard lost his life at Bosworth Field, the boy was taken to Colchester Abbey, enrolled as a lay monk and taught the art of bricklaying.

With the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 he lost his home. Now an old man, he arrived at Eastwell looking for work.

The Lord of the Manor took him on and he apparently confided who he was. He was buried at Eastwell but sadly there are no surviving remains in the tomb to do a DNA test.

Some historians debunk this theory but it has captivated others, especially the late David Baldwin who wrote a book about it.

And since David, a lecturer, author and medieval expert from Leicester, predicted in 1986 exactly where the remains of Richard lll would be found, we should listen to him and keep the most open of minds about Richard Plantagenet.

And no doubt Yorkist supporters will continue to lay white roses on this lonely tomb until one of the greatest mysteries of history is solved.